


How To Train the World

by Fluffmage_Night_Fury7



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Friendship/Love, Growth, Other, Shrinking, cute and sweet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25040632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffmage_Night_Fury7/pseuds/Fluffmage_Night_Fury7
Summary: It has been hundreds of years since dragons separated from humans, and now each world remembers the other as works of fiction and folktales. The world is about to make a startling discovery: dragons did exist, and still do. The automatic reaction is to be wary of these newly rediscovered beasts... but are they really all that scary? This story basically summarizes how I would have liked to see the HTTYD franchise end. I was not satisfied with The Hidden World's lore or storytelling, so I hope to make a proper ending that takes place in the modern world. This story is told from the perspective of two characters: a girl named Freya, and a dragon named Tannlaus (Icelandic for Toothless, in case you are wondering). I hope you enjoy this story as it develops. :) I plan to make many more chapters in the future, and I'm honestly not sure how many it will be, or how long it will take. So far, I think it is a decent read, but let me know what you think. Keep in mind that courtesy and kindness are important for criticism. I will not pay any attention to rude comments.
Kudos: 4





	How To Train the World

The words “there were dragons when I was a boy” were considered a part of Norse mythology in the modern age. Almost no one accepted that dragons ever existed, and those that did were labeled as those who would believe in fairy tales. This was the original intent of the man who wrote his memoirs about dragons many years ago. In his ancient manuscripts, he wrote that dragons were to return when the time was right; but dragons still have not returned. He said that dragons lived in a secret world totally out of reach, although he had failed to mention any exact location, for fear that people would discover it and exploit the dragons when he was long gone; when all that was left of him for people to see was his stale parchments with ancient ink scribbled over them in Norse. 

The man, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, had been a Viking chief hundreds of years ago according to historians. Interestingly, his journal, along with many other possessions, were found by a man going through his mother’s house in Michigan after she had passed. Before having an estate sale, he called a local museum, since he did not know where the possessions came from. After they had been processed by the museum, they were identified as legitimate historical artifacts, belonging to the Viking chief. The journal was passed down from generation to generation most likely, with the simple message held between Hiccup’s descendants that dragons had lived among them. Very little was known about Chief Haddock, likely because other Vikings weren’t big on writing, and plus he was not the type of Viking to talk about himself. It was said that Hiccup was the original dragon master and dragon whisperer, but many historians guessed that this was merely an attempt to frighten off invaders. Hiccup himself never claimed this title in his memoirs, but rather mentioned it briefly in a humorous type of way that some had given him the names. Despite his denial of this title, he seemed to know a lot about these mythical creatures, and had seemed as if he was happy that humans did not believe dragons existed. If you’ll allow me to quote directly from Hiccup’s memoirs, I believe he summed it up nicely: “Yes, the world believes the dragons are gone, if they ever existed at all, but we Berkians, we know otherwise. And we’ll guard the secret until the time comes, when dragons can return in peace.” He also mentioned some great separation of dragons and humans with some sadness, yet he was confident that humanity would become better over time, eventually ready for the dragon’s return. However, this was not the case. Humans were still much the same as they were, caring mostly for their own gains, exploiting lands, destroying entire species, etc.

Even with increasing amounts of paleontological and archaeological finds pointing towards the existence of dragon-like creatures and a peaceful coexistence of Vikings and numerous other cultures with dragons, historians and the world for the most part refused to believe they ever existed. Many accounts of ancient dragon sightings have been blown out of proportion and corrupted by certain elements of fantasy, such as the notion that they are magical creatures, so maybe this dissuades the minds of the public to an extent. Certain animals that we know have existed, such as a cat, has been believed to be magical or even divine in certain cultures, but historians have not denied the existence of cats, since we have evidence of them, and see them today.  
It was obviously due to the fact that no one had ever seen a dragon in the present that almost no one believed in them. Seeing is sometimes believing, but for those who already believe it is often a state of unbelief that passes over them when their belief is rewarded with reality. This was the case of the subject of our story. She believed in dragons, although she knew so little about their true nature. However much she talked about dragons, it was filled with good will and understanding. What I mean by that is that she dedicated herself to the idea that dragons were indeed peaceful creatures, despite their ferocious appearance described in fantasy and ancient writings. Freya was this girl’s name. Descended from Vikings, Freya’s hair was a bright wavy red which seemed to glow everywhere she went. She was curious and compassionate. Whenever someone was alone, she would be with them conversing with them in the best way she could. Boys would describe her as a living angel, capable of no harm or ill will. Her sensitivity and sweetness frequently got her into trouble, but she never remained down for long. When she was taken advantage of, she would not hold a grudge against anyone, however close they had seemed to her when they betrayed her. She was the kind of person who saw the good in others, and got along with everyone, with the exception of those who sought social status through the means of destroying another person. Indeed, there were many of those who put their own pride over their friendship with her, which hurt her to the core. It did not hurt her self-image, but her heart ached rather for the people who harmed her. The short-term gain of putting others down is not worth it, and she realized that very well, making her quite mature for her eighteen years.  
She often wondered when dragons will return, since she had read the memoirs for herself. Her walls were covered with artwork of dragons, but there was one dragon in particular which captured her curiosity the most and which covered her walls predominantly. This was the dragon Toothless, Hiccup’s supposed companion dragon. Hiccup’s drawing of Toothless in his memoir, and more importantly the computer-generated reproduction of Toothless in the animated dragon movies of late had enchanted Freya from the moment she saw him. She also had a collection of the drawings of Toothless’ mate known as the light fury. A great deal of her time was spent sitting in her room with her bearded dragon, unironically named Toothless, and dreaming of dragons and people living together. She had studied as much as she was able about dragons, sometimes pouring over the cards of Fishlegs, one of Hiccup’s Viking friends, to see if she could learn something interesting. She did not have personal access to the original artifacts of course, but she worked around that by viewing them via the internet. She knew the ancient Norse, so it was with little effort that she translated the cards.  
Of her few friends, most also had an obsession with dragons. Many a visit to any friend’s house often involved creating stories about dragons, or creating new dragon species through the use of conceptual art. Freya was the only person among her friends who could only draw Toothless or the light fury, however. It was a bit of a crutch for her, and to avoid drawing, writing, or thinking about Toothless would leave her quite sad on any and all occasions. She hoped that somehow, some way, Toothless was still alive. But it was surely a hopeless endeavor. Toothless was the only ‘celebrity’ that she wanted to meet, and it often disappointed her friends that she didn’t want to dream with them about boy bands and other girly fantasies of young male celebrities. Freya only saw Toothless. She wanted to make a connection with him like Hiccup did in his lifetime according to his memoirs. She wanted to place her hand on his warm scales and scratch his chin, desperately wishing that she could have a true friend in this world of traitors. A wild creature, yet someone so relatable, loyal, and compassionate...

This is not to say that Freya did not love people or have real friends, but she preferred the simplistic love of an animal over that of a person. Toothless’ personality and unconditional compassion towards his friend Hiccup resonated with her in ways that she could never fully describe to her friends. He was cute, caring, and kind, in his heart. These things were found lacking in the hearts of almost all of the humans that Freya had experienced. Most humans were lost, and in the process of their own arrogance only managed to ruin the lives of others with their own, causing more hatred and bitterness to spread. Most people were good inside themselves somewhere, and Freya believed wholeheartedly that dragons were the cure to humanity's oppression to some degree. It wouldn't fix everything emotionally, but those who receive a hug from a dragon would never be the same, and would likely change for the better... But alas, most humans had decided that dragons were merely fibs of fiction, so none of these things mattered much to them. Despite all the cultural evidence and accounts and records of people seeing dragons in history, the world did indeed believe that dragons never existed.

The Hidden World that Hiccup described in his memoirs however was very real in fact, and it was beneath humanity’s very feet. The colors of this place were spread about like one splashing life and vibrancy to every corner of a rocky canvas. Its radiancy exceeded anything that a human could have imagined. The vastness of the several interconnecting caves was in itself too much to take in. But for our young dragon, the radiancy was dull. The colors were pale, and the vastness seemed to always decrease. His wings carried him regularly through the caves, and throughout his eighteen years he had seen just about every bit of the explored caves, but not all. His parents had told him many stories about how ancient dragons used to live on a surface world with no walls or ceilings. Our dragon's mother had explained that long ago, the very first alpha night fury dragon led them into this underground world, but this was hard to imagine for dragons who had never seen "ground". It was explained more like this: "over the ceiling's surface is an infinite ceiling above that, or a lack of a ceiling completely". The stories also explained that the exodus into this cavernous world was done so that dragon kind could be safe from humans, which were two-legged creatures without scales that often wore external objects of protection or personality to show their identity/demeanor, using soft materials made from various over-world animals, such as the "sheep". Humans were the strangest creatures in dragon lore, and it's probably one of the reasons that dragons were so wary of them. They were crafty, even devious, some would say. They had two legs, sure, but they also had two extra legs which sprung from their sides, as if their entire bodies had bent straight upwards to avoid placing their front paws on the ground. Some dragon drawings (drawing was an old tradition that every dragon culture seemed to know) pictured humans with huge heads with spikes on top, round cones on top of their heads, and countless other head designs that all seemed to depend on where the drawing originated from.

Despite their seemingly vulnerable yet odd description, humans were highly feared, and mention of them often brought unrest and a slight panic on the faces of listeners. Many cruel dragons took advantage of this fear and embellished stories to scare their children into staying near the nest, or getting to bed on time. For example, some parents would tell their kids that if they did not get to bed at such and such a time, humans would track them down and cut off their heads and wear their skins as coats. Nice parents, but what can you say? Humans have done the same in their history with stories such as the ‘boogie man’, and I’m sure you, the reader, can think of many human folktales intended to frighten listeners. Although to be fair, both stories have some truth in them, and there definitely are bad humans out there, although dragons could not know this for sure outside of the stories, of course. Adult dragons pretended they were not in the least bit scared, but most could not hide that they were at least somewhat anxious hearing about humans. However, most believed they were nothing more than mate-tales (think wives-tales, but for dragons), since no one had seen any real humans in their lifetimes. Our dragon did not quite believe the tales, since he knew that fear was just a tool to manipulate or control people. Added, some (of the less popular, and rare) stories also explained that some humans were kind, intelligent, and gentle creatures, whose souls often reflected their dragon companion's souls. His family was also of the mindset that dragons and humans were destined to be together again someday, as their ancestors had likewise believed. There's almost always some truth to stories, or truths are put into the details in order to make it believable. Despite the low chance of the positive stories being true according to most dragons, our dragon and dragons like him wanted to believe desperately that humans were nice creatures. Most dragons seemed to be selfish traitors, caring more about themselves than attempting to show compassion to others, which is actually similar to many humans (unbeknownst to our dragon).

Let us return to the other story about the first night fury alpha briefly mentioned before. Many dragons wondered, as humans wonder, how they came to live in that place of existence. Not all of them agreed however. Most believed that Toothless the alpha had led them there (our dragon's mother has told him such stories, as I mentioned), because of the stories passed down by generations through word of mouth, but they were unsure how that happened exactly. Some say Toothless was aided by a kind human and entered through some sort of secret tunnel under a human village, while others said Toothless and the human were forced to live apart, due to other humans becoming intolerant to the dragon species, and attempting to use them for their own gains. Every dragon culture from the Dark Dwellers to the Coral Colonies had their own story about how their ancestors evacuated some sort of over-world without a ceiling. This could possibly could point to multiple events in the mass exodus, showing that perhaps Toothless' evacuation was not the single and only event that brought all dragons to their new home. In fact, this means it was possible that some dragons still exist in the over-world, somewhere. However, from the ominous description of human's oppression, the prospect of that was not hopeful. 

Few dragons had been able to find anything close to a supposed evacuation point to their home, since their home was an extremely elaborate maze of cave systems, and even fewer had claimed to have ventured out into the mostly unknown over-world. Our dragon knew of a rumored tunnel near his home leading into an unknown area, and a few times he had explored it. But as often as he explored, and far as he explored, he made sure to find his way back quickly, fearing the emotional devastation his parents would have if he left for too long. Although he had not found much of anything yet, he was sure every time that he would find something. During his latest trip to the mysterious tunnel, he had heard a loud echo of water bouncing through the tunnel from somewhere far away. He did not want to stay in this same world of caves for so long... he wanted to discover what the brave adventurers had vividly portrayed. Some said there was a seemingly endless sheet of water which cascaded into a pit that led into their world, and some others said that strange unidentified objects had fallen inside. Their description of some sort of endless and unreachable dome of nothingness, or the world without a ceiling, was orally recalled with such vigor by the weary dragon travelers that one could almost believe in it just by listening. All of the stories ended there, however, and few gave the authors much attention. Many dragons doubted that an exit ever existed, and many of them denied the existence of humans, since no one had actually seen them in their lifetimes (as mentioned before). Aside from these stories, there was little actual information about the outside world, and very few dragons had the nerve to step outside of their comfortable lives and explore the possibly dangerous unknown. It was a frightening leap to most, but an adrenaline rush to a few.

To our young dragon, these unknowns only seemed to excite him. His parents grew worried for him, so much so that they often took turns guarding him during the night so that he did not run off to explore that mysterious cave. Ah yes, I have forgotten to describe our dragon friend. He, and his species, does not have a human name at this point in our story, so we will not go that far ahead yet. What I will tell you is that our friend is related to the night fury species. His species is a subspecies of night fury, like the light fury, but let’s just say that this subspecies was very special indeed. They had lost their night fury cousin’s ability to become invisible, and had gained a new one. These furies could shrink and grow in size at incredibly rapid rates, allowing them to squirm out of danger or crush their foes. The growth requires a much vaster amount of energy than shrinking however, and can also take a bit longer. While these furies can shrink whenever they desire, the growth requires massive food intake. Shrinking down to escape immediate danger and find shelter, this fury must release loads of energy in the form of hot steam and light in order to decrease its size via powerful shrink hormones. During shrinking or growth processes, a type of painkiller is released into the dragon’s body, since the rapid process of shrinking and growing would be incredibly painful normally. Cells are split or merged, for expansion and compression respectively. As this process occurs, the body itself works tirelessly to rearrange the body’s very structure. Fascinatingly, these dragons also have a chemical inside their bodies which can almost instantly dissolve and repurpose tissue and bone in their body, allowing them reuse certain cells for new smaller structures. As you can expect, the dragon is vulnerable during the shrinking, but the striking light and smoke screen make up for this, as predators who rely on sight will be blinded, and predators that rely on heat will find themselves confused by the hot steam during the process.  
There is a limit to these dragon’s largest and smallest size, because of the genetic code and what their environment demands, but it has been enough to help this subspecies thrive. The strongest among them can grow from the size of a human’s fingertip to the size of a suburban house in less than a day, but this requires tons of food, of which there is plenty in the Hidden World. In case you are wondering, no, a suburban house is not their maximum size. Some have been known to grow to the point where their paw soles are equal to two SUVs in length and width. Even the largest of humans would struggle reaching around the dragon’s claw completely. The more powerful the size change, the more that the spikes on their backs glow a bright orange.  
Besides these amazing abilities however, the subspecies basically look the same as night furies on their exterior except for their slight brownish tinting in place of the blue tinting of the night fury. The brown scales contrast their world nicely, and the sheen of them reflect the colors vaguely. 

Our dragon was a budding “man” so to speak, a curious and empathetic dragon whose eyes radiated a type of kindness reliant on nothing except the existence of other beings. His eyes were a soft pumpkin orange, and his tongue, which he often showed out of mere goofiness, demonstrated his friendliness towards many nervous and shy strangers. Almost no one felt unnoticed when this dragon was near, having been affectionately greeted by him with placating licks and what could only be equated to a draconic purr. He knew his boundaries however, and restrained himself from letting loose his full fury of ferocious cuddliness upon others.  
Despite his kind reputation, he was not a popular figure among the young lady dragons. Most preferred someone ready to fight at every turn and protect them, but our dragon simply wanted to get along with everyone. This is not saying that he would not protect someone he loved, but the fact that he never challenged other males automatically degraded him to a ‘lesser’ level in the eyes of his species. His species was compassionate, but not for competitors. This, as you can imagine, made him wonder often what his place in the world was. He felt increasingly useless and helpless as time went on, and no dragon seemed to fulfill his desire for a truly loving relationship as he saw it. He had few friends, but among those none cared much for him. They could say it, but they could not show it to him. No one ever had been able to do that for him. He could not even feel love from his parents anymore as he tried to feel something, anything. He watched as his friends betrayed him for popularity, and it broke his heart. Feeling the burden of his situation and feeling depressed, he desperately wanted some escape from it all. The Hidden World was not exactly a private place, and constantly he was reminded of his loneliness and emptiness by dragon couples that flew above his family’s coral nest. 

The only comforts he had for himself was the possibility of something else being out there, and that humans existed and could provide him with the love he desired, maybe. He often hoped and dreamed about the stories being true. He could picture humans, all with their strange skinny legs and weird platform feet, gigantic heads and simplistic smiles, and legs coming out of their upper body on each side with paws on their ends used for grasping objects. Despite the scary stories, the dragon believed that humans must have been kind, at least some of them, since they had allied with his ancestor Toothless. It was a romantic idea to him; the idea that some creature so different had coexisted with his species. It was the differences in these creatures that had his imagination spinning wild. The world to him seemed like it should be so much bigger than just the Hidden World, and the idea of some endless ceiling was an incredibly exciting thought. There were no walls, no ceilings, and no need to hide who you are. An entire world without dragons? Count him in. He would be something truly unique amongst the human colonies. Who knew how many of them were out there, and how many different species there were in existence by now? Perhaps some humans had grown scales or wings! There was simply too much left unanswered. His parents could not deny his curiosity much longer they knew, and one day they held a meeting with him on their coral home....

[to be continued....]


End file.
